Lifelong Learning Programme

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Title of Product
« DASPA », Service to welcome and educate newly arrived students
Image of the product
Name of Author(s)
Ministry of compulsory education – Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Name of Producer
Ministry of compulsory education – Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Date of Production
Since 2001
Language of the review
English
Language of the product
French
Level
Local
Type of product
Awareness Material (Leaflet, Brochure, etc)
Thematic Area
Integration of immigrants students
Target Group
Headmasters
Description of Contents
Some schools receive a great number of students from foreign countries, without education or knowledge of French, in an education system they know nothing of.
Those “newly arrived” students need specific support to have equal chances of emancipation through education.

DASPA’s are an intermediary and temporary step before going to an ordinary class.
They aim to make sure that newly arrived students are welcomed, guided and integrated, that they receive appropriate educational support (depending on the language or culture).
Review
The intermediary classes are called “classes passerelles“ (“bridging classes). Students can stay there between one week and six months, with possible extension up to one year.
During that time, the student receives specific support to adapt to and integrate in the socio-cultural and education system (welcoming, insertion and guidance).
As soon as they are ready, students leave the bridging class to make room for new students and go to an ordinary class.
Besides integration, it is also centred on intensive learning of the French language for those who do not master it enough, and adapted updating (history, geography, mathematics, sciences), so that the students can enter the appropriate level as soon as possible.
The timetable is adapted to the students’ needs. However, this programme cannot have less than 15 hours dedicated to human sciences (including French) and less than 8 hours for science and mathematics.
The organisation is very flexible. The school receives from the Ministry of Education additional means (hours, teachers) it can use as it wishes. However, it has to inform the Ministry on the action carried out.
The Ministry provides educational support to the teachers involved (creating points of reference regarding the learning steps for the students whose mother tongue is not French).
It also organises training and information sessions, in collaboration with welcome centres and the Red Cross, for the educational teams of the schools involved (headmaster, teachers, educators, coordinators ...).

Thanks to the DASPA’s the schools that receive many students of foreign origin can continue their educational mission with these students.

Such initiatives must exist in other countries. For instance, France has developed “classe-accueil” (“welcome classes”) that work like our “bridging classes”.

The DASPA’s success is ever-increasing since its creation in 2001.
For the school year 2012-2013, in order to better meet field realities, the system was reinforced: funding for more than 70 measures and improved functioning.
For the school year 2013-2014, 35 measures are funded in primary schools and 36 in secondary schools:
http://www.enseignement.be/index.php?page=26430&navi%3D894

20 December 2014

Final Partners’ meeting

The fourth partners’ meeting took place in Florence (IT) on 15 December 2014. The meeting had the objective to check the activities carried out since the third meeting of the project and share and assess the in progress results. A special focus has been dedicated to the presentation of the strategies to solve the case scenarios.